In some applications, power analysis is a process by which the power consumption of an integrated circuit device is determined. Power analysis can be conducted during the design process of an integrated circuit device, so that the expected power consumption of the device can be estimated, and changes to the design can be made if the estimated power consumption is too great. The power consumption of the device can be estimated using, for example, theoretical charge and discharge values for the logic cells that will make up the device once the device is constructed, and toggle rates of signals that drive the logic cells. The theoretical power values may be based on physical characteristics of the logic cells and/or empirical testing, and may be available in libraries produced by a semiconductor fabricator.
In various examples, power analysis can be conducted by exercising the integrated circuit device design. For example, a simulation-based power analysis tool can execute a software simulation that includes code that represents the integrated circuit device. In this example, the tool can drive inputs into the simulated device, and can process the outputs of the device. As another example, an emulation-based power analysis tool can use the code that represents the integrated circuit device to configure a hardware system (often referred to as an emulator) to reproduce the design. In this example, the emulation system can drive inputs into the emulated device, and process the outputs. In each of these examples, the tool can further capture the toggle rates of signals in the device, and record the cells that are affected by toggling of the signals. A total power consumption, as well as steady-state power consumption and/or peak and trough power consumption can be calculated.